This Time Next Year
by Writerwithagoal
Summary: Holiday fluff piece. AU-Human, and originally posted on AO3 for the Klaroline Gift Exchange 2016. Based around the song This Time Next Year by Colin & Caroline.


Christmas Eve 2013

"You don't have to go," his blue eyes followed her as she went around her apartment packing her carry on and her suitcase.

"If I don't leave now, I'm not sure I'll get the chance to travel like this again. Yea it sucks that I won't be able to go home with you and Bek's for Christmas but we're adults now it was bound to happen." She huffed throwing a dress into her suitcase before glaring at him.

"Can't you call and ask to start after Christmas?" His eyes hardened and his jaw tensed looking at the blonde curls as they bounced around her.

"I don't want to, and they want the piece about traveling during the holidays and how JFK is during the busiest time of year. It makes no sense if I don't leave tonight!" She had finally paused in packing to look at him. "Also! I want to do this, I want to see the world and travel while I'm young and establishing my writing style!"

He bit his lip, he'd been seeing her and friends long enough to know that he had over stepped drastically. He had just thought that they had more time. Sighing he stood up and shook his head.

"I'm not going to wait around for you love, we're both busy and knowing you, you'll probably not be back stateside for a while. I don't do long distance relationships and neither do you." His hand was on the door and he wasn't looking at her.

"Klaus don't be like this, I'm your sisters best friend, of course we're going to see each other again," her left hand ran through her hair and she bit her lip.

The sound of the door closing was the answer to only request for him to not leave. Sighing she checked her watch, she had twenty minutes to finish packing before the taxi picked her up to take her to JFK for her flight to Nice.

Christmas Eve 2016

 _I look across the crowded room,_

 _it's been a while since I saw you_

 _It must of been this time last year,_

 _you're doing well, that's good to hear._

Caroline was back in her home town after almost a year away. She'd been traveling and writing for a travel magazine for more than three years and she loved it. Smiling to herself she walked around the bustling party at Mayor Lockwood's. She could feel the stares on her back as she moved through the community that she had fled from eight years previously. Following high school graduation, she'd taken her full ride to Columbia and with her best friend Rebekah Mikaelson they'd ditched their small town for the bustling of New York City. She'd graduated Columbia fourth in her college and first in her class. Not high enough to be valedictorian but it had been quiet fun. Her double major of journalism and creative writing had landed her a job right out of University with an up and coming travel magazine.

Rebekah had flourished in New York meeting her partner Lorenzo their third year. She hadn't gotten a full ride like Caroline but she also came from a very wealthy family so moving to New York wasn't much of a hardship on her proud parents. Rebekah had been undeclared for a semester before she'd fallen in love with international relations and foreign policy. Now she was working in the State Department in Washington D.C as a policy advisor for the Secretary of State. Lorenzo had been pre-law and after their undergrad, he'd been accepted to Georgetown University for Law and was working towards his duel J.D/L.L.M. She'd been promised that they were coming tonight, in fact they'd been the ones to buy her the ticket home. She'd been traveling through the Caribbean for the last six months doing puff pieces of different resorts and clubs that tourists looking to escape the winter snow in the states or Europe. Though currently she had looped the room twice and they weren't here.

Sighing she smoothed the skirt of her little black dress as she moved through the crowd of towns people and members of the towns heads of power. She waved softly at her mom who was standing by Mayor Lockwood and chatting. Caroline was glad that her mother had decided not to wear her Sheriffs Uniform to the town party. Turning she smiled at a friend from high school, Katherine Pierce who was standing with her husband Elijah Mikaelson. Making her way over to Katherine she offered a small smile.

"Hey it's been a while, how are you two? I heard from Rebekah that you were married now I'm glad." She said awkwardly looking at Katherine who was looking at Caroline with a raised eyebrow.

"It's nice to see you too Forbes, what has it been six, eight years?" Katherine asked looking at her as though she'd disappear.

"Well I just never found the time to come back and then I got the job and I'm sorry, forgive me?" Caroline batted her eyelashes.

Katherine smirked and shook her head before pulling Caroline into a tight hug, "Thanks for coming right here, because if you look behind you there is a certain painter staring at you in shock."

Caroline tensed and pulled back to look Kat in the eyes to see if she was lying and started to shake her head.

"Katherine, no! I can't!" Katherine was already spinning her around and to face her brother-in-law and Caroline's ex Klaus Mikaelson.

"Hi Nik, look who got dragged here too," Katherine said leaning against her shoulder and looking at him.

"I have eyes Kat, I can see her standing here with my own eyes," he said his accent seemed thicker than the last time she'd seen him. Though he looked at her and had acknowledged her presence to Katherine he hadn't said anything to her and by the time she opened her mouth to say something Klaus had turned to talk to Elijah. Biting her lip, she looked at Katherine and softly shook her head.

Katherine looked at her with sympathetic eyes and then was pulled into the conversation between Elijah and Klaus. Left to wonder again she drifted to the bar and ordered a glass of red wine. Leaning against the bar she groaned, Tyler Lockwood the boy she had dated when she'd been 15 till they'd graduated high school was walking towards her. From the stumble and uncertainness in his steps he was past drunk. Cringing she stared at him and looked around praying Rebekah and Enzo had finally arrived, when she realized they hadn't she looked for Katherine who seemed to have also disappeared.

Deciding to disappear herself, she took off for the women's bathroom, just as she was rounding a column she ran face first into a hard chest. As she started to glance up she heard Tyler asking someone if they'd seen her, closing her eyes she pulled the stranger into a kiss. The lips were soft, smooth and if she was honest familiar. They fit almost perfectly with hers and she deepened the kiss upon hearing Tyler grumble on by. She waited until she was sure that he was gone she pulled away. Opening her eyes, she looked up blushing bright red, she hadn't been expecting to see a rather shocked and confused Klaus standing there.

"I'm so sorry Klaus. I didn't mean to-but Tyler and drinking and and," she was rambling looking at him praying he didn't hate her.

"Love calm down, I'm rather flattered that you thought kissing me would protect you from Tyler," he said looking at the blonde bombshell who was currently staring at him as though she'd broken some promise.

 _Well, I should tell you, I should say,_

 _maybe it's me or just the way..._

"Let me get you a drink and we can catch up on what we've each been up to these last three years," he said softly looking at Caroline who was still bright red.

"I'd like that very much, it wouldn't be too weird?" she asked softly, her eyes wide at his shift in attitude. Biting her lip she looked at him as they walked back over to the bar, he smiled gently back and ordered a whiskey neat for himself and a glass of wine for her.

As they made their way through the party the conversation ranged from places they'd each visited, to works and pieces that they'd done for clients. They were still talking as they moved out into the garden behind the Lockwood Manor. The snow had started to fall again and as they moved through the garden their conversation began to slow. She shivered a little and Klaus slipped his coat jacket around her shoulders and smiled at her. The moonlight glinted in his eyes as he looked at her and pulled the coat tight around her.

 _This light is hitting you so well,_

 _what's in this drink, It's hard to tell._

"There now you won't get a cold. I'm glad you came this year, it's been a long three years since I last saw you," he said looking at her as the carollers started to sing inside. They both turned to look inside eyebrows raised at their neighbours and friends were singing loudly and a bit off key. Looking back at each other she gestured out into the garden and raised her eyebrow at him.

"Sounds like a plan love, our friends seem to have decided that they all possess a talent for singing, my car is parked at the end of the drive, if we go now we can make a get a way."

Caroline laughed and looked at him nodding, "I think that my mom will be here for a while if you want to go off to my house," She offered.

Klaus nodded and smiled back at her, "I think I have wine in my car, if that sounds like a nice addition." Grinning at him she looped their arms as they made their way through the parked cars and the flower pots through to his Mercedes. Slipping into his car she looked at him and grinned.

The drive was quick, the town wasn't that big and soon he was pulling into the drive of her childhood home. Smiling at him she fished her house keys out of the clutch in her hand and led him into the darkly lit house. Leading him into the living room she gestured for him to sit on the couch. As he sat she moved through the room lighting the candles and turning on the two lamps. Smiling she took the bottle from him and went into the kitchen to

"I'm glad that we've run into each other, this was nice. I've been sorry about how we left things-how I left things three years ago. It was childish of me, and I never got the chance to apologize to you," she said looking at him as she handed him the glass of wine.

"Me too love, me too," he said softly shifting to allow her room on the love seat as she toed off her heels and sat next to him.

Caroline smiled a light blush covering her cheeks as she hid her face behind her wine glass.

They talked into the night and as the wine dwindled and the conversation slowed, they nodded off together. Sheriff Forbes came in around 4 am to find them tangled together and under a blanket. Smiling she tiptoed upstairs leaving the two adults slumbering on the love seat.


End file.
